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About Michael J. Miller

Miller, who was editor-in-chief of PC Magazine from 1991 to 2005, authors this blog for PC Magazine to share his thoughts on PC-related products. No investment advice is offered in this blog. All duties are disclaimed. Miller works separately for a private investment firm which may at any time invest in companies whose products are discussed in this blog, and no disclosure of securities transactions will be made.

NAB Show 2011: Don't Give More Spectrum to Wireless Broadband

At the annual National Association of Broadcasters' NAB Show in Las
Vegas yesterday, NAB President and CEO Gordon Smith gave an impassioned
speech urging the federal government not to force broadcasters to give
up more spectrum to wireless carriers.

Smith said there isn't a "spectrum crisis"
and accused the carriers of often just wanting to use the
spectrum for financial speculation. He's worried about the cost of
reduced spectrum to the 43 million people that rely exclusively on free
over-the-air television. This of course, is a very different view than
you get at wireless shows, like CTIA
and Mobile World Congress.

Smith claimed that if broadcast technology would have been invented today, it would be viewed as a great public good. "It's great you
can get BBC World News and Al Jazeera on your iPhone." he said. "But isn't it a
greater value for a community to get local Channel 4? Isn't that a
public good?"

Less than two years ago, Smith said, broadcasters gave up more than 25 percent of TV spectrum and spent $15 billion transitioning from analog to digital television. But he said, now wireless companies want another 40 percent of TV spectrum.

"Hey...we already gave at the office!," Smith said, saying the NAB was in "full battle mode" to protect broadcasters from being forced to give up spectrum involuntarily.

He didn't have a problem with a station volunteering to sell its spectrum if it can't make it and if it doesn't harm another station, but was concerned that the FCC might force another broadcaster to relocation and crowd the channels closer together. "This endangers our digital future, and violates President Obama's promise to prevent a world of digital haves and have-nots," he said.

Smith discussed how broadcasting is much more efficient technology than wireless broadband, because it uses much less spectrum to reach more people. "Its signal goes from one to everyone...rather than one to one as cell phones do," he said.

Smith said there is "not enough spectrum in the universe to replace our one-to-many broadcast system to a one-to-one transmission architecture." He noted that even some wireless companies concede that they will need to eventually use some of their spectrum in a broadcast-type architecture, specifically for sending mass appeal video content to smartphones.

"Broadcasting already has the architecture, and it's worked for more than 60 years. What sense does it make to take spectrum that is being used efficiently and use it less efficiently?" Smith asked.

Smith claims there is no "spectrum shortage" for mobile broadband today, but just a capacity crunch. He said there has been more spectrum allocated to mobile broadband than there is capital to deploy it, and he urged more investment in towers, infrastructure, and receiver standards that maximize the use of the spectrum that wireless carriers have already been allocated. He added that instead of doing this, the carriers have apparently determined that it is cheaper to buy our TV channels at auction than to build out their networks.

"Spectrum should not be used for speculation," Smith said. He also noted that some carriers are just sitting on spectrum, because it's a good inflation hedge. To solve this problem, he called for the Government Accounting Office to conduct a comprehensive inventory of what spectrum is out there and how much of it is being used today.

It's a very different point of view than I'm used to hearing from wireless carriers, but one that is certain to be a large part of the debate in the next few years.

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